The snipe's wings are pointed, which contributes to its erratic flight patterns. It likes to hug the earth, and rather than flush quickly, it often holds tight to flush underfoot, or runs along the ground ahead of the dogs. Once airborne, the birds never seem to fly straight and can prove frustratingly difficult targets for even for skilled shooters. Expect to be humbled by this little bird.

A shotgun with an improved cylinder choke and loaded with No. 8 birdshot is suitable armament for taking aim at these darters -- but you'll have to work hard for a limit.

According to Game Management regional supervisor Steve Ruckel of the WRD Albany office, Elmodel, Chickasawhatchee, Hannahatchee, Flint River and Horse Creek wildlife management areas are promising sites in the southern reaches of Georgia for locating snipe. In central Georgia, try Oaky Woods or Ocmulgee WMAs. In the North Georgia mountains, snipe are not common at any public area, but are present at most. Check out any swampy drainages at low elevation to find the birds.

GROUSE
The ruffled grouse is another game bird found in North Georgia. But unlike the snipe, it's quarry that you have to hunt for specifically; you won't flush these birds by chance. The scarcity of quail and rabbits in the mountains is such that few small-game hunters just stumble across grouse.

Often called the "king of upland game birds," the grouse gets its name from the ruff of dark feathers on its neck, a feature particularly evident on the males. The female lays nine to 10 eggs, but unfortunately only about 25 percent of nests are successful. Grouse do not usually renest, which, says WRD wildlife biologist Adam Hammond, tends to keep the population low in Georgia. That low density is also due to some extent to the Peach's State being on the southern fringe of these birds' natural range.

Generally, grouse prefer second-growth forests with a brushy understory, and thrive in the luxuriant greenery that fills in the voids left by timber harvesting. Clearcuts 10 to 15 years of age that are thick with head-high briers are ideal for the birds, which can also be found around springheads surrounded by mountain laurel. That laurel, Christmas fern and greenbrier are favored food sources.

Grouse inhabit 50- to 100-acre ranges, depending upon time of year, and normally favor elevations above 1,000 feet. That preference qualifies much of North Georgia's Chattahoochee National Forest as grouse habitat, so the forest can boast a fair-sized complement of the birds.

Hammond suggested that the best places for public-land hunts are on the Blue Ridge, Chestatee, Chattahoochee, Cohutta, Coopers Creek and Rich Mountain WMAs, all of which are within Chattahoochee NF. Fortunately, after a hiatus of many years, some clearcutting has resumed within the forest, which promises to be a boon for grouse in coming years.

A Brittany spaniel is an ideal grouse dog, since it normally won't range far ahead. Grouse may either flush wildly when pressured or take off running over the ridge, so you want on the one hand to be close enough for a shot, and on the other to stay close enough to join the dog in following the running bird until it takes to the air.